Varian - VLS 1000 Electron Beam Lithography

Summary : Remember when Varian was in the lithography business? You dont? Well, this was one of the top e-beam direct exposure systems in the early eighties.

Varian VLS1000 E-Beam Lithography System

Remember when Varian was in the lithography business? You dont? Well, this was one of the top e-beam direct exposure systems in the early eighties. And what a deal, no masks! Many things we take for granted today were Wow! items back then: Auto wafer handling, much higher resolution than any optics system could do, as well as higher overlay accuracy. Moreover, while the system wafer throughput was low, the overall wafer throughput exceeded any optical system.

So why are they not in use today? Because the lithography patterns were stored on magnetic storage media and no one could guarantee long-term, error-free, retention. Could it have a comeback? Who Knows? Every time a fundamental technical limitation is foreseen, someone, somewhere, figures out how to get around it.